Essay on Management Theories

Frederick Taylor (1917) developed scientific management theory (often called "Taylorism") at the beginning of this century. His theory had four basic principles: 1) find the one "best way" to perform each task, 2) carefully match each worker to each task, 3) closely supervise workers, and use reward and punishment as motivators, and 4) the task of management is planning and control.

Successful management requires an understanding of the fundamental concepts of effective management techniques and principles. In order to gain such insight, and manage effectively and efficiently, managers must develop an awareness of past management principles, models and theories. From the turn of the 20th Century, the need for a formal management theory was growing evident; organisations required a system to guide managers in an attempt to improve productivity and efficiency of workers. This urgency for a theory saw the development of six major management approaches, the focus of this essay will be on two of the classical management theories; the scientific management theory and the human relations movement. The contributions of both

Management is the process of getting tasks done through the use of people. Through management decisions, our team will have one of the leading coffee shops within the BizCafe simulation. Within the management aspect of the company, we must first look at human capital, which are the skills, values, and overall output of an employee and the price at which these facets are worth. The managers of The Grind must delegate tasks through the serving staff of our company. The servers are the face of The Grind, meaning that it will be the servers who will interact to build strong customer relations with the guests of The Grind. However, there should be an efficient number of servers working on the clock at any given time throughout the day; The Grind should strive to always be properly staffed. If the shop is understaffed, customers will experience longer wait times, rushed customer interactions, and an overall subordinate experience; however, if the shop is overstaffed, each individual employee is most likely to give less production, and more importantly, our shop’s payroll will be out of proportion, meaning we will be spending too much money on labor. Wages also effect overall production from the employees. If we pay our servers too little, compared to the competition, we are likely to see less production, unhappy employees, and a large turnover rate. On the other hand, if we pay our servers too much, we risk blowing our weekly labor cap if our sales do not exceed the

Management is a “process, comprised of social and technical functions and activities, occurring within organizations for the purpose of accomplishing predetermined objectives through human and other resources.” In order to achieve the desired objectives of the organization, managers carry out technical and interpersonal activities and work through and with other people. PPG 4. This paper will summarize my interview with such manager, along with the description of the purpose of interview, brief introduction of the interviewee and his organization. The paper will also relate ideas and topics covered in the interview with the management principles in healthcare and finally explain what was learnt in this process.

Intrinsic factors, such as achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth seem to be related to job satisfaction. When respondents questioned felt good about their work, they tended to attribute those factors to themselves. On the other hand, when they were dissatisfied, they tended to cite extrinsic factors such as company policy, administration and supervision. Herzberg deduced from these experiments that the opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, as was believed. He found that removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job satisfying. He thus proposed a dual continuum, where the opposite of satisfaction would be no satisfaction and the opposite of dissatisfaction would be no dissatisfaction (Robbins,1993) According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation, organizations cannot begin to motivate employees until that which dissatisfies them has been removed. Hygiene Factors such as salary, working conditions and supervision are not motivators even when they are being met. Other types of hygiene factors include, company policy, poor interpersonal relations and job security. The meeting of lower-level needs of employees is not motivating, but can have a de motivating impact if not met. True motivation only kicks in when an employee’s higher-level needs are met (La Motta,

The year 1911 saw Frederick Winslow Taylor publish a book titled ‘The principles of scientific management’ in which he aimed to prove that the scientific method could be used in producing profits for an organization through the improvement of an employee’s efficiency. During that decade, management practice was focused on initiative and incentives which gave autonomy to the workman. He thus argued that one half of the problem was up to management, and both the worker and manager needed to cooperate in order to produce the greatest prosperity.

Every manager must have a set of principles, values, and core beliefs that he must follow. These principles, values, and beliefs make up his philosophy of management. Webster defines philosophy as “the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group.” (Webster) I will be discussing the principles, values, and beliefs I as a manager will have to do my job efficiently. I will also discuss the different biblical beliefs that support my management style.

Scientific Management Theory by Frederick W. Taylor – Throughout the industrial world employees are the large part of the organisation and Fundamental interests of employees are necessarily aggressive. So as a manager it is necessary to arrange mutual relations with employees so their interests become identical. In case of any single individual the greatest prosperity can exist only when that individual has reached his highest state of efficiency and that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output (Frederick Winslow Taylor, 2007).

Herzberg’s theory (1966) concluded that factors such as (but not limited to) Achievement, Recognition and Advancement motivate staff. This is shown in the Barbour Brown Engineering Ltd case study as everyone is fairly well paid however James is often treated as David’s senior whereby he would have James give out the new projects to staff and was also allowed to authorise site visits when David was out of the office. This has lead too many of the engineers being de-motivated and to a certain point disgruntled as they all have their chartered status and James doesn’t and therefore less

Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.

There are a number of management theories that have changed the management business environment in the twentieth century. The theories have assisted managers to come up with better ways of management and organization of people. Managers have been able to increase profits, reduce costs and maximize efficiency. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the contributions of scientific management and the human relations movement to the modern management. This essay will use Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theory on scientific management and Elton Mayo’s human relations theory. These two movements have been proven to increase productivity in the workplace (Mullins, 2005).

According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are distinctly different from those that lead to job-dissatisfaction. Therefore, the managers who seek to eliminate factors that create job-dissatisfaction can bring about peace at the workplace but cannot motivate the employees. These factors are termed as hygiene factors comprising administration, supervision, working conditions, salary and wages etc. While absence of hygiene factors will lead to dissatisfaction, mere presence of these factors will not satisfy (i.e. motivate) the employees. In order to motivate the employees, managers must resort to ‘motivators’ (those factors that motivate the employees towards better performance) such as recognition, challenging assignment, responsibility, opportunities for growth and self-fulfillment etc.

The main focus behind the development of management theory is the quest for good ways to make use of managerial means. Management theory evolves constantly with the continuous stream of new ideas that come from the attempts to transform theory into practice, and vice versa (Aguinaldo & Powell, 2002). Progression in management theory normal happen as key personnel discover great methods to accomplish the most important management responsibilities: planning, organiz-ing, leading, and controlling human and other managerial means. This paper will show how man-agement theory having to do with suitable management processes has emerge in modern times, and view the main aspects that have led to its prosperity.

Between 1770 and 1850, during the Industrial Revolution in England, huge changes occurred in society. In this time, huge Industrial growth occurred due to advancements in power, transport and communication. Inventions such as the steam engine allowed industries to expand and transport goods and materials with ease. Communication improved also due to the arrival of the telegraph, telephone and radio. This industrialisation continued at a rapid pace with the economy in the western world shifting from mainly agricultural to being involved with manufacturing goods and industrial markets. This change required more structured and coherent management methods to be created. It wasn’t until the early 1900s however that formal theories of management started to be formulated with the arrival of classical schools of management.

Classical theory emphasis on increasing employee efficiency at work. It focuses on increasing employee productivity, specialization of work, centralization of decision making and profit maximization. There are three management the